Leap year 2012! (90 days to go...)

I could not miss the chance to blog on the leap year, which also coincides with 90 days being left until the end of the academic year at Chalmers. Exam week starts and ends on Saturday here at Chalmers. To have an exam on a Saturday morning is quite normal here. My second exam in the first quarter was on a Saturday afternoon. One of the last exams to take place before the beginning of the second quarter. Luckily this time, I've only got one course which has an exam next Thursday afternoon. My other course is an engineering group project which runs across the third and fourth quarter. For those of you not familiar with the terminology, a course is what you would call a module back in the UK.

In Sweden, there are a number of 'sweets' you have to try before you leave, especially if you stay the full year. The most famous one you come across is kanelbullar, also known as a cinnamon bun in English. They even have a whole day of the year dedicated to it - 4 October. I think I first had this when I was in Haga with Pierpaolo, Alex and Arno. Before you knew it, it was the season of giving - Jul (aka Christmas). Now, the Local UNITECH Chapter (LUC) Sweden held a baking event for all alumni to join. There were two alumni, Pier and I present. We had a chance to bake lussekatt (saffron bun) and knäck (translates to "break"). It was fun baking lussekatt as we all made our own designs as well as the traditional shape. Knäck is basically just a mix of sugar, which is quite unhealthy but okay for that once in a year treat. I also had the opportunity to bake lussekatt with Erik and Sven as well at Ostkupan. The next event was Shrove Tuesday, which has semla dedicated to it. Really tasty, and I had both the traditional one (sold everywhere) and the modified one (sold by 7-Eleven). I can still remember the taste - craving for one right now! Cannot wait for the next traditional Swedish sweet - I wonder what's next?